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Social Media Abuse on Facebook: Are Brands so Insecure?

July 14, 2011

13 Comments

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When it comes to developing applications, Facebook guidelines are very strict, it is disturbing the amount of broken laws and rules that are administered online. It breaks my heart to see so many brands indirectly affiliated with it. I was browsing “Sho El Fekra” application today which is great idea, a campaign that allows people who are committed to social change, to share ideas which will help your community, and realized that they have a big social media app development violation.

Facebook clearly states the following in their Developers Policy: “You must not incentivize users to Like any Page other than your own site or application, and any incentive you provide must be available to new and existing users who Like your Page.” Which is what the application is doing, enforcing mandatory LIKES to different pages in order to enter the contest and vote. I am not against any of those businesses or pages, on the contrary, I respect all of them for the great work they do for the community, but I cannot respect the means in which they are acquiring fans.

I tweeted to Nakhweh saying @nakhweh Ur app “Sho El Fekra” is against #Facebook Guidelines. U can ask a user to like UR page to proceed. Not Mandatory 12 likes #Spam their reply was that “we understand your frustration but they r 10 of the respectful #jo orgs, today is the last day, next time it’ll be different :)”

Be different by fixing it now, not by forcing likes upon people. What I don’t understand is the following, Hamzet Wasel, Injaz, Jordan River Foundation, King Hussein Cancer Foundation, Madrasati, and Zikra Initiative are you that insecure about your amazing initiatives that you have to let an application force people into liking your page. This is not SOCIAL MEDIA, this is not how you reach people and communicate with them, this is pure spam!

Is it Nakhweh’s Fault? Maybe because they built the application, and I will give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe they did not read the Facebook Promotion Guidelines, however, what about those 12 brands that are embedded into the application forcing people to like their pages before a user chooses to vote for their favorite idea? Why did they agree to be there? It’s a shame what Social Media has become in Jordan, my good friend and fellow blogger Mohammad Shawash blogged about it before, you can read this here: 5 Reasons Why I Hate Facebook “Like” Competitions!

Hello, we are not here to address who ever is behind the Initiative, the initiative is great and this is not our issue at all. The problem is to use Social Media without abusing or breaking the rules of the platforms.

At last, someone have noticed the misuse of social media in Jordan. Big THANK YOU goes to you Lara 🙂

Whoever came up with the idea of promoting these pages has never read Facebook guidelines or came cross the closing of Kia Jordan page few weeks ago due to the violation of Facebook Promotions Guidelines.

Unfortunately, many of local digital agencies are utilizing social media the wrong way. They have forgotten (or may be are ignoring) the core value of Social Media Marketing, which is building relations with target audience, not having as much fans/followers as possible.

Thank You Loai for your input. I have seen applications that are 100% legal get shut down by Facebook because they got viral, but then again most of those “SHUT DOWN” apps were back up and running with 48 hours, because their Facebook Appeals were respected. In regards to Social Media Strategy there is nothing wrong with applications and sweeptakes, they are a great way to communicate with your fans and increase your number of fans, but it must be done without breaking down any of the rules and regulations, but as you said agencies are either (1) ignorant or (2) turn a blind eye. I spoke to the app developers of this app moments ago, they said they wont be doing it again.

Lara, I think your points are far too critical here. No one is forcing likes on anyone. If a user wants to participate, then they can; if they want to ignore it, they can; and if they want to follow it and not like anything, they can as well.

It’s all about choice. And while Facebook is pretty clear in their policies, this mechanic does nothing unethical.

I beg to differ, if you work in Social Media you would know exactly what I am talking about. In terms of Facebook Application Guidelines it is a big NO-NO to promote users to like all of them pages. I never said that Application it self is unethical, it is a great idea, however, if I wanted to vote for one of the idea’s for making our country a better community, I am not allowed to do that unless I LIKE all the listed pages in the picture featured on the blog. That is both illegal and ethical.

What you were saying about if a user wants to participate or not does not apply. I am forced to LIKE 12 different pages in order to VOTE for one idea which I think is great for Jordan, there is no skip button and liking all 12 pages is Mandatory. I am sorry but I would have to say that you are wrong.

Well not sure what the details of the campaign are, and I do have issues with Nakhwes lack of protection of your privacy -(my CV was made public, you can find it and access if you Google my name!) and is still public after complaining several times to them AND deleting my account- but if this application (and i’m saying if because I don’t know whether it is or not!) is a collaboration between all those organizations, how is it unethical to ask you to like their pages to enter a competition they’re organizing? I’m not too familiar with the regulations, but this appears to me as unethical as a candy company asking you to collect 13 different wrappers of their candy to enter a competition, if 12 candy companies collaborated on the competition and asked you to collect wrappers from all twelve, it’s still wouldn’t be unethical. Anyway, if the rules are indeed against this then yes, breaking the rules is unethical, but I don’t see why this would be against the rules, doesn’t make sense to me.. report abuse and see if it is against the rules!

Hi Fawzi, I dont set the rules Facebook does. In terms of this there is a fine line between forcing someone and asking someone. They could’ve listed all 12 NGO’s on their page and recommended that people like them, but then again, they did a Mandatory LIKE to all of those organizations. According to Facebook Platform Policies for developers the rule is clear “You must not incentivize users to Like any Page other than your own site or application, and any incentive you provide must be available to new and existing users who Like your Page.” .